Good news! A recent study from the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences measured how much carbon can be sequestered by cover crops. Researchers found that – if we all stepped up our efforts to increase cover crop adoption – cover crops could offset 8 percent of carbon emissions created by agriculture worldwide. In addition, cover crops could keep sequestering at that level for about 150 years before the soil was carbon saturated and couldn’t hold any more.

So what are cover crops, exactly?

Cover cropping is the practice of planting a second, unharvested crop in coordination with the cash crop to prevent erosion and nutrient loss. Farmers grow cover crops in a variety of ways, including growing them year round as a living mulch, planting after harvest or intercropping by growing the cover between rows of the cash crop.

The benefits of cover crops are becoming more and more familiar among farmers and the rest of the agriculture community. Cover crops do all these great things:

Crimson clover. Photo by Christine Mason

Cut fertilizer costs

Reduce the need for herbicides and other pesticides

Improve yields by enhancing soil health

Prevent soil erosion

Conserve soil moisture

Protect water quality

But cover crops also have hidden climate benefits! Who knew?

Cover crops increase soil organic matter, including soil organic carbon. Simply put, cover crops make soil healthy and healthy soil sucks up carbon like a sponge – aka sequestering. When carbon is trapped in the soil, its power is used for good and not evil.

Agriculture is responsible for 10 percent of greenhouse gases overall, so any offset would be welcome. We don’t need to keep our heads in the sand about climate change when we can find solutions in the soil.

]]>http://blog.nwf.org/2015/04/are-cover-crops-an-underground-climate-change-solution/feed/0Romance and “Reality” in Rural Americahttp://blog.nwf.org/2014/09/romance-and-reality-in-rural-america/
http://blog.nwf.org/2014/09/romance-and-reality-in-rural-america/#commentsWed, 24 Sep 2014 17:47:52 +0000http://blog.nwf.org/?p=100383Did you hear? Chris Soules, the heartthrob fan-favorite farmer from last season’s The Bachelorette will be next season’s Bachelor. Chris stole the hearts of the viewing audience with his family-first, country charm and a romantic hometown date complete with horseback ride and picnic in a field on his Iowa farm.* Check out the “Good Morning America” video introducing this bachelor farmer below.

So, what does “The Bachelor” have to do with the environment?

When the new season of “The Bachelor” airs on ABC in January, 2015, America will get to see a lot more of Chris, more of Iowa and more of the rural lifestyle — albeit through the lens of reality television. Sometimes we romanticize life on the farm with movies like “Field of Dreams” and other times we vilify agriculture altogether with movies like “Promised Land.” The truth is, reality is somewhere in between: farming can be rewarding but never easy.

My report, The Growing Business of Cover Crops highlights some of the exciting entrepreneurial opportunities springing up in rural America. With more farmers moving toward future friendly practices like no-till and cover cropping, more farms need the support businesses like crop advisers, seed and custom harvesting. These jobs probably won’t make you a millionaire or a reality television star, but you can make a living, create jobs, improve your local rural economy and be a part of the sustainable agriculture movement.

* I must confess, I’ve never seen the show. But I’ll tune in this January to see who is ready for the Iowa life!

I live in a big city now, but I grew up in a small town. Farms and rolling fields, pastures and paddocks, corn and combines. Those were the good ol’ days, but so much has changed since I left – in both farming and my town. When I visit home now, I see more for sale signs in yards than tractors in fields.

It’s not like farming was ever “easy.” Even during the good ol’ days, most farmers in my town had day jobs because small farms aren’t lucrative enough to pay the bills. But for them, farming was in their blood. It was what they did and who they were. So they got up before dawn to do chores before going to work and they were in the fields until after dark. Weekends off? Vacations? Hardly.

The Great Recession of 2008 hit everyone hard, but it was particularly rough on Rural America. Those day jobs have dried up and moved elsewhere, leaving a lot of small farmers with the tough decision to stick it out with the farm or leave it behind.

Well, you can take the girl out of the country, but you can’t take the country out of the girl and that’s why I am really excited about National Wildlife Federation’s new report, The Growing Business of Cover Crops. It talks about some new opportunities those farmers and other small town people have to start their own businesses, make a living, support their families and even support their communities by creating new jobs.

What’s a cover crop, you ask? That’s when farmers plant another crop after harvest, something they won’t necessarily ever harvest, but it’s there to “cover” the bare ground over the winter. The cover crop protects the soil, making a living, green blanket to hold the topsoil and nutrients for the next season.

Cover crops have been around for centuries, but they were pretty much forgotten until recently when a few creative farmers figured out that they help restore soil health and can even help protect them during a drought. The cover crop comeback has been fast and furious—a 38 percent increase in one year, according to USDA—creating a niche market for rural entrepreneurs. Farmers are willing to pay up to $40/acre on cover crops (cost of seed, planting, etc.) and sometimes they need to hire outside help. That means more jobs in seed production and sales, custom harvesting and even livestock grazing, with salaries reaching $62,000 per year.

So don’t give up on your small town just yet! Read our new report and you might be the next cover crop entrepreneur!